Ridership on El Paso's Sun Metro decreased in fiscal year 2015 compared with the previous fiscal year, following a similar declining trend in other Southwest cities, city officials said.

Sun Metro Director Jay Banasiak said El Paso had 15.9 million paid riders in fiscal year 2015, which ended Aug. 31. That is down from 16.5 million paid riders in fiscal year 2014. The figures do not include the Lift service for people with disabilities.

Banasiak said the recent decline in the use of public transportation is attributed to cheaper car loans and lower gasoline prices. He also noted that the city is continuing to make considerable improvements to make public transportation more efficient and appealing. Sun Metro averages 42,000-43,000 riders each day.

Census data, which provides snapshots for calendar years instead of fiscal years, shows that fewer El Pasoans use public transportation compared with other cities in the Southwest like San Antonio, Albuquerque and Tucson. The census data further indicated that El Paso had fewer car poolers than San Antonio, more than Albuquerque and slightly fewer than Tucson.

Based on census data for 2014 and 2013, this pattern held true for San Antonio and Tucson, except for Albuquerque, where the use of public transportation rose.

Nationally, the use of public transportation remained at 5.2 percent of Americans in 2014 and 2013, while carpooling fell somewhat from 9.4 percent in 2013 to 9.2 percent in 2014.

The Brookings Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C., has several reports stating that major businesses look at a city's access to public transportation before expanding into that city.

"Metropolitan transportation networks are critical for a region's economic competitiveness," according to the Brookings Institute. "Public transit is a key component of the economic and social fabric of metropolitan areas."

Banasiak said the city surmises that the most significant carpooling involves workers at White Sands Missile Range who commute to the installation from El Paso, Las Cruces and other places in the vicinity. The census does not have details on El Paso workers' carpool destinations.

Improvements

City improvements have ranged from building new bus shelters and bus transfer stations to acquiring more modern and efficient buses.

“We’ve installed 380 new bus shelters throughout the city, and built new transit centers and renovated two older ones," Banasiak said. "The Brookings Institute ranked us fourth among the top 100 metros in share of coverage (94 percent) of working-age residents that live near a transit stop.”

Brookings experts consider it important for workers to be able to live near a public transit stop so they can travel to their workplaces.

Officials said the city of El Paso is spending $145 million on a new rapid transit system that will serve four parts of the city. The first one completed, the Mesa Street Brio system, was launched last October. Three others are planned for Dyer Street, Alameda Avenue and Montana Avenue.

Mass transit: Ridership in select cities

Carpool and public ridership changes in select cities from 2014 to 2015 in the Southwest.

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2014 Public

2014 Carpool

2015 Public

2015 Carpool

Times analysis of U.S. Census data

Times staff

The Brio service will be similar to a light rail system and will offer more frequent bus runs. For example, the Mesa Brio runs every 10 minutes during peak times and every 15 minutes in off-peak periods, Banasiak said.

Liliana Solano, 44, a waitress, boarded a Brio bus Wednesday at Oregon Street and Rio Grande Avenue on her way home from work.

"I rely on the bus service to get to and from work five days a week, Monday through Friday," Solano said. "I've used the Sun Metro buses for the past six years, and the new Brio for the past six months. I change buses at the transfer center, and it takes me about half an hour to get home, which is in the Alameda-Piedras area. My children also use the bus service in the city to get around. Overall, the service is very good."

By early 2016, Banasiak said the city hopes to have technology in place that will enable people to use their smart phones and computer to track the arrival of buses.

Commute times

The census data for 2014 showed that the average daily commute for El Pasoans lasts 21.7 minutes, compared with 23.2 minutes for San Antonio, 21 minutes for Albuquerque and 22.1 minutes for Tucson.

In addition to using public transportation and carpooling, driving across the city through increasingly busy traffic means that transportation infrastructure also had to change.

Intelligent transportation development is vital to the region’s economic growth, said Tom Fullerton, the University of Texas at El Paso's Trade in the Americas chairman.

“The investments in transportation infrastructure will yield very good returns in future years, as will ongoing efforts to raise the effective dropout rates in the public school districts,” Fullerton said.

“One worsening bottleneck, however, is the lack of a four-lane highway that connects Interstate 10 with U.S. Highway 54 through the Anthony Gap,” Fullerton said. “With ever-growing cargo volumes being processed through the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, the so-called 'Northeast Parkway' is becoming more critically important as a mandatory step toward improved transportation efficiency.”

Fullerton said transportation developments in Juárez also are helping. Because of its border location, El Paso has cross-border commuters (workers, students and shoppers), as well as international commercial traffic.

“Ciudad Juárez has invested in more bypass/loop infrastructure in recent years, improving freight circulation on the south side of the Borderplex,” Fullerton said.

Stuck in traffic

Commuter tips

Mark Burfeind, with INRIX, a global company based in Kirkland, Wash., that offers road traffic and driver service, has several tips for commuters:

“Get smart about your city, and find out where it ranks on the INRIX Traffic Scorecard. The Scorecard provides details on the top 25 worst traffic cities in the country and the worst roads within them,” Burfeind said. “A scan of the worst roads list for your area and the amount of delay shown during the worst hour of the day are good indicators for the major pain points.”

Pick a destination wisely. Depending on which route is selected, the amount of delay can vary greatly. Check the traffic often on the day of departure to get early warnings of accidents and other incidents along the route.

Also, while preparing to hit the road, download a traffic app, such as INRIX's up-to-the-minute traffic information app that ensures current insight into traffic conditions around town.

A traffic app can provide real-time traffic maps covering arterials, city streets and other secondary roads that will help avoid congestion with minimal delay

In addition to our INRIX Traffic app, INRIX provide route-specific traffic insights to local news outlets in most major metropolitan areas, such as Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.